The Dangers and Indignities of Riding the East River Greenway

Above 34th Street, the East Side of Manhattan is unforgiving for cyclists, without any real provision to ride safely and quickly. The one dedicated path for bicycling, the East River Greenway, is barely usable for practical trips — the gap between 38th Street and 63rd Street being the most prominent of several flaws. On a ride organized by Transportation Alternatives this Sunday, Michael Auerbach of neighborhood group Upper Green Side led a group of about 20 cyclists, including City Council Member Dan Garodnick, on a tour of the greenway path to take in its pinch points, shoddy surfaces, and other shortcomings. Here’s a short photo tour of the trip from 6th Street to 63rd Street, with an assist from TA’s Kim Martineau.

The city has begun exploring a plan that would plug the greenway gap using funds secured through a land swap with the United Nations. If, after looking at these pictures, you’re wondering about what you can do to support a better greenway, it may helpful to keep in mind Garodnick’s parting message from the Sunday tour: “Communicate to your elected officials.”

The pathway narrows and cyclists must dismount in front of the Crow’s Nest, sandwiched between the FDR Drive and the East River, before riding through the restaurant’s parking lot.

At 37th Street, greenway users head back toward the wide open streets of the East Side…

…where cyclists on First Avenue make do without bike lanes and navigate around double-parked cars.

This father and son are heading across 62nd Street to the greenway entrance on the north side of 63rd. Heading to the greenway here takes you across the path of traffic heading to and from ramps for the FDR Drive, in a part of the city with zero on-street bike infrastructure.

Council Member Dan Garodnick urged the tour group to contact their elected officials in support of the plan to close the greenway gap.

Above 63rd Street, the greenway is pocked with depressions and sinkholes that have been fenced off, like this one near 118th Street, creating pinch points on the route. A recent cave-in on the greenway at 72nd was caused by a breach in the bulkhead, which caused material supporting the pavement to leak into the East River, according to Joshua Laird, assistant commissioner for planning at the Parks Department. Work on plugging this hole in the bulkhead and another one in the 120s is underway, he said. These breaches are relatively easy to fix compared to other depressions in the greenway, where marine organisms have eaten away at the wooden pilings underneath the greenway surface.

“We’re doing some creative budgeting to fix what we can,” Laird said, but it’s going to take a significant investment to complete a comprehensive rehab of the greenway structure. “Until we can figure out a big allocation of funding, it’s going to be one by one.”